Battle Red Blog
The Houston Texans have been here before. To be perfectly fair, they have been here three other times before in their history. When things start to go sideways as they have this season there are stages that the team goes through. Obviously, these are similar to the stages of suck I introduced earlier this week. Those stages are more for fans and analysts on the outside. Teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers seem to be immune to sucking, but almost every other organization has gone through this. Before we look at the current situation we should review the history.
The Texans were not expected to do much as they were an expansion team, but the momentum they had built in their first three seasons had stalled. So, Bob McNair brought in Dan Reeves to evaluate the entire organization. The question is always the same: when things go sideways is it more about the Jimmy and Joe’s or about the Xs and Os? If we want to put a prettier bow on it we could ask whether the coaches are failing to develop the players or use them in ways that would insure their success or if the front office is just giving them bad players?
Reeves ultimately pointed the finger at both Dom Capers and Charlie Casserly. So, both got the boot and the organization started over with Gary Kubiak and Rick Smith. Both had their issues and the decision to move on from both of them was probably a good one. Looking back, I don’t think you’d ever expect things to go smoothly out of the gate.
This season is probably the most directly comparable to the current season. The Texans were coming off of back to back division titles and were expected to win again. Matt Schaub turned into a pick six machine and the rest is history. This was also a comparable situation in that Smith and Kubiak were aligned until they weren’t. That familiar story came down again and the organization sided with Smith. This decision was not as clear cut as both Smith and Kubiak had their supporters and detractors. Plus, no Reeves was available to help out McNair.
We know this story and while there was no power struggle, it was yet another example of whether it was Bill O’Brien the coach or William O’Brien the general manager. The power struggle may very well have been between Jack Easterby and O’Brien and just saying that statement out loud confirms how dysfunctional the organization was at that point. I certainly think O’Brien deserved to go, but Easterby should have been show the door and the failure to do so probably set back the organization a season or two.
That brings us to the current day. There were reports that Ryans was yelling at his assistants on the sideline, but he tried to quelch those rumors by saying he was yelling at the officials instead. Maybe that is...
